5/6/10

In which I talk about things that bother me, so they won't bother me anymore. Because Westminster told me I'm a verbal/ linguistic learner.

1. Should I be offended by the older male teacher in my department who calls me "kiddo?" I'm leaning towards not, (even though several people told me I should be,)because when I'm deciding whether or not to be offended, I always like to consider tone. Co-worker calls me "kiddo" in a friendly nice way, not a condescending idiot way. Is it PC? No. Is it offensive? Probably not.

2. Sometimes I wonder if passive-aggressive people just think everyone else is an idiot. Because the classic passive-aggressive tactic is to manipulate words and tone so that they can claim something that isn't true. But it is always really obvious and pathetic looking, so why not be outright aggressive. (Be, aggressive, be, be, aggressive.)

For instance, I had another co-worker tell me she was "happy (I) got the job even though there were more qualified applicants." You weren't there, but I can tell you what her tone really said: "You're an idiot." Additionally, did she really think that if she said she was happy about my job that I wouldn't notice the jab later?

5/4/10

-I had a weird and very negative reaction with a student I usually get along with. It had me all depressed because while I deal with negative student interactions every day (Hi student looking at porn on his phone during my class!) there is something very discouraging about thinking you have a good relationship with a student, and finding out you were wrong.

-This morning I got a frantic email from said student apologizing profusely. It was so sincere and adorable that I ignored all the spelling/grammar/syntax errors. Desperate times call for desperate sentence structure, I suppose. Plus, who in the sam hell hill judges apology emails?

-Actually, I rarely care about grammar/spelling/syntax outside of formal class work. For some reason, everyone seems to have this impression that English teachers spend all their free time looking for misused commas and condemning people to hell as a result. False. Those people aren't English teachers. Those people are English Nazis who are usually grammatically correct, but boring, writers. Is grammar important? Yes. Is grammar the soul and essence of good writing? No. We all know a lot of boring people with perfect hair.

-"We all know a lot of boring people with perfect hair" is probably the best analogy I've ever written. I didn't even have to make fun of Republicans to achieve it.